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12/03/2018 10:00 AM EDT

By ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Campaign Pro subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.
THE TOPLINES
NC-09 UNCALLED - The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted Friday to hold an "evidentiary hearing" on or before Dec. 21 over claims of "fraudulent activities" in NC-09, further delaying certification of the election. More from POLITICO's Steven Shepard: The board voted to not certify "after receiving notarized affidavits from voters who claimed that a woman was going door to door offering help filling out and returning absentee ballots in Bladen County, in the eastern part of the district, which stretches west to parts of Charlotte. A subcontractor for Harris' campaign is suspected, the Charlotte Observer reported." The AP has retracted its call in the race.

GAMETIME DECISION - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is expected to announce today if he'll challenge his state's Democratic governor in 2019. POLITICO's Burgess Everett: "He seems confident that his blunt quips and conservative voting record can overcome Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' moderate governing image. But Kennedy also seems to love being in the Senate, where he admits his mouth can get the best of him: 'I don't always mean to say it out loud but sometimes I do.' ... [P]rivately, people who know Kennedy think he'll ultimately get in the gubernatorial race after the hemming and hawing of the past few days."

- A poll from Bernie Pinsonat had Kennedy leading Edwards, 49 percent to 45 percent. The poll was funded by "private subscribers" and surveyed 500 "chronic voters" from Nov. 16-21, per Bayoubuzz.

Good Monday morning. The Mets are going to be good this year, and I will transform this newsletter into Morning Mets. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com and dstrauss@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @JamesArkin, @ec_schneider and @DanielStrauss4.

Days until the 2019 election: 337

Days until the 2020 election: 701
IN THE TRENCHES
CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - California Republicans lost nearly all the competitive seats in the Golden State, a wipeout scenario that caught many off guard. Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "The nightmare results were the end result of a toxic brew of overconfidence and presidential unpopularity, as some Republicans failed to recognize and reckon with the unprecedented negative reaction to President Donald Trump in districts from Orange County to California's agriculture-heavy Central Valley. ...

"But Democrats saw the opportunity from the beginning, even in [GOP Rep. David] Valadao's district. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee persuaded [TJ] Cox to run against Valadao instead of campaigning in a district seen as more competitive - part of a broader, successful effort to back winners in the state's all-party primaries and avoid getting 'locked out' of battleground districts by the top-two primary system. The DCCC followed up in the fall by pumping TV ad money into Cox's campaign while most outside groups left the district alone."

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - The 2020 Democratic field might put the final nail in the coffin of the "invisible primary." POLITICO's David Siders: "The shift toward an increasingly open, early presidential primary is exemplified by uncharacteristically brazen campaigning by top-tier contenders, more than a year ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Informed not only by Trump, but by the potent, small-dollar operation built by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have spent months cultivating lists of small donors on highly public social media channels, while promoting themselves on TV."

- Speaking of Harris, she will decide over the holidays if she'll run for president, per NBC News' Genie Gratto.

- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee quietly set up a PAC in October. The Seattle Times' Jim Brunner: "The committee, Vision PAC, was quietly registered in early October by Inslee's campaign treasurer, Philip Lloyd. Its first and only reported donation so far is $5,000 from Blaine Tamaki, a longtime Yakima attorney and major Inslee political contributor".

- Michael Avenatti's hopes could be crashing and burning. POLITICO's Natasha Korecki: "After a domestic violence arrest in Los Angeles and a public rift with his porn star client Stormy Daniels over fees and legal strategy, even some of his most loyal supporters are doubting he can survive the latest round of challenges and remain a viable candidate."

CAMPAIGN CASH - Rep.-elect Ross Spano (R-Fla.) said in a statement that his campaign may have violated federal law over campaign fundraising. The Tampa Bay Times' William March: Spano "acknowledged borrowing $180,000 from two people he has described as personal friends from June through October this year, and then lending his campaign $167,000 in roughly the same time period. When he made the loans to his campaign, Spano said on campaign finance reports that the money came from his 'personal funds.'

"But under federal campaign finance law, a loan made to a candidate with the intent of providing money for a campaign must be considered a campaign contribution, not the candidate's personal funds."

UP FIRST - House Democrats revealed their first order of business in the 116th Congress: a broad campaign finance and voting rights proposal. POLITICO's Maggie Severns: "A summary of the bill released Friday includes broad changes to federal campaign and ethics laws. It would create national automatic voter registration, call to 'end partisan gerrymandering,' require 'all political organizations' to disclose donors and overhaul the Federal Election Commission. It would also revamp federal ethics laws, including mandating the disclosure of the president's tax returns, which President Donald Trump has so far refused to do."

STILL HERE - Russia is still trying to meddle in American elections. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "slow learner" who "tried again to muck around in our elections this last month", per POLITICO's Conor O'Brien.

THE COMMITTEE CHAIRS - Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo was elected the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss reported.

THE BERNIECRATS - The faithful of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) movement gathered over the weekend in Vermont to discuss policy initiatives - and encourage him to run for president. The Washington Post's David Weigel: "For Sanders die-hards, there was no longer any question that he would be the best possible candidate to reverse the gains of right-wing nationalists. RoseAnn DeMoro, who had turned National Nurses United into the biggest labor backer of Sanders's 2016 bid, took every chance she could to urge the senator to run again. Asked if she had been contacted by other presidential hopefuls, DeMoro was incredulous. 'There are no other candidates,' she said."

MOVING THE GOALPOSTS - After losing the gubernatorial mansion, Wisconsin Republicans are looking to change the rules before incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers takes power. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Molly Beck and Patrick Marley: "[A]mong the proposals are ones to limit the governor's powers, weaken the attorney general and restrict early voting to two weeks before an election. Currently, some communities provide as many as six weeks of early voting. The early voting plan would be all but certain to draw a legal challenge given that a federal judge in 2016 struck down a similar law limiting early voting that he found 'intentionally discriminates on the basis of race.'"

CYA - Outgoing Florida Gov. (and Sen.-elect) Rick Scott suspended the much-criticized Broward County election supervisor, Brenda Snipes. "Every eligible voter in Florida deserves their vote to be counted and should have confidence in Florida's elections process," Scott said in a statement to POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo. "After a series of inexcusable actions, it's clear that there needs to be an immediate change in Broward County and taxpayers should no longer be burdened by paying a salary for a Supervisor of Elections who has already announced resignation."

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "James O'Keefe thought it was a good idea to send an amateur spy into the campaign office of an actual spy. I don't have a joke about this - I just want all of you to think about that before you go to bed tonight," Rep.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) at the Gridiron dinner, per Playbook.

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